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Bioswales -- instead of homeless -- in front of Portland City Hall? Portland City Hall Roundup

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A few homeless campers said Monday they spent the night on the sidewalk in front of City Hall, even after Mayor Charlie Hales warned that overnight stays would be prohibited.
(Brad Schmidt/The Oregonian)

The bioswale proposal had been getting serious consideration from Hales but ran into opposition from some city commissioners.

Dana Haynes, Hales' spokesman, said the proposal was in no way linked to removing homeless Portlanders from City Hall -- just for the good of the environment.

"Homeless? No. It's a green streets initiative," he told City Hall Watch in an email. "We talk a lot of environmental development and we need to prove we mean it."

Some city commissioners didn't want Hales to use money collected by the Bureau of Environmental Services to fund the project or tap Bureau of Transportation staff to perform the work.

It would have been particularly ironic if money from BES, now managed by Commissioner Nick Fish, had been used in the plan and homeless protesters were displaced. Until February, Fish oversaw the city's Housing Bureau, which pays for projects and services that help homeless Portlanders.

Last Wednesday, Haynes originally said bioswales were being considered for City Hall, noting in an email that, "It's part of the mayor's proposal to make the building more amenable to all the residents, as was the goal when the building was renovated."

But by Friday, he wrote, "There was talk about doing something like a bioswale in front of City Hall. I don't think that's got much traction."

As for bioswales, Hales is strongly pushing for them in front of the neighboring Portland Building and Haynes said they'll likely be added sometime this summer.

Building bioswales reduces the amount of rain water that goes into pipes and is funneled to the city's treatment plant. In turn, that keeps extra water out of the river, which is good for water quality and reduces costs, Haynes said.

But Haynes also was quick to note that the city's facilities division will pay for the improvements, not the sewer and stormwater bureau.

If such additions are motivated by improving the environment, as Haynes suggested, why wouldn't the city use utility money -- as it does for other bioswale projects?

"The mayor's thinking is that the bioswale ... is all part of a project to improve the entrance of the Portland Building" and therefore should be funded with facilities money, Haynes wrote.

So there you have it. Bioswales at the Portland Building but not City Hall.

For now, anyway.

"Not saying there won't be one at City Hall," Haynes wrote. "But just not here first."